Marilyn Z. Tomlins

Die in Paris

A spring night in Paris. Suddenly the night's stillness is shattered by sirens and excited voices. For days foul smoke has been pouring from the chimney of an uninhabited house close to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Police and fire fighters race to the house to break down the bolted door. They make a spine-chilling discovery. The remains of countless human beings are being incinerated in a furnace in the basement. In a pit in an outhouse quicklime consumes still more bodies. Neighbors say they hear banging, pleading, sobbing and cries for help come from inside the house deep at night. They say a shabbily-dressed man on a green bike pulling a cart behind him comes to the house, always at dawn, or dusk.

The house belongs to Dr. Marcel Petiot - a good-looking, charming, caring, family physician who lives elsewhere in the city with his wife and teenage son. Is he the shabbily-dressed man on the green bike? If so, what has he to say about the bodies?

Marilyn Z.Tomlins is a freelance journalist. She lives and works in Paris, France.

Bérets, Baguettes, and Bureaucracy is Allison’s blog that she started, to use her own words… “as a way to be in touch with my family and friends when I moved to France to be with my (now) husband. Now, at the urging of many readers, I hope to expand it to include useful information about my life in France, including new recipes, travels and general experiences in a foreign country.”

The blog started in June 2010 with the post… Why I started a blog… with Allison starting her new life in France in Paris.

The post from that month that stands out for me is To market, to market! where Allison buys a welcome mat for her apartment!

And then it’s Goodbye, Paris when Fabien, Allison’s fiance, gets a job in Clermont-Ferrand.

Having only moved over here on the 6th of January, Biscuits to Baguettes is still a very new blog.

That’s why I’m doing a mini-review of it here today.

Biscuits to Baguettes is Leigh and Bruce’s blog about their move to Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne.

Leigh says of her blog… “My husband and I are living as expats in Clermont-Ferrand, FRANCE for 2 years. This site is way for me to share our experiences with family and friends and, most likely, be my photo journal of our time here.”

The French part of the blog starts with Nous sommes ici! (We are here!) with Leigh and Bruce arriving in France with, of course, their Roaming Gnome!

For, not only does it have a fantastic post about that identifiably French thing that, every time we see it, we think “Ah, yes France” (and I’m not talking the Eiffel tower here!) – the Citroen 2CV!

But, there’s also a post about the British attempt to copy the 2CV – the Humber Hawk.

Now, it is my firm belief that the Humber Hawk totally failed to replace the 2CV in our affections as the chicest car around for the following 3 reasons….

1). Humber didn’t go to France to find a beret wearing world class designer for the car.

2). Instead, they gave the job to Derek from Scunthorpe because he was on work experience (and thus cheap) and also because he was the Managing Director’s nephew (yes, the British car industry used to work like that!) and finally…

3). Because you could order one in any colour you wanted, as long as it was grey!

Brent, Jackie and Mikaela is the blog of Brent Russell, his wife Jackie and their daughter Mikaela.

Now, as you all know, Brent is a famous rugby player who even has his own Wikipedia page!

The blog starts in September 2008 with Just started and comes to life, in my eyes anyway, in October of that year when Brent says.. Bonjour… having just moved to Clermont-Ferrand to join the world famous rugby club.

Initially Jackie stays in London but she manages to come over for a week’s break in the South of France and together they visit… Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Cannes and Monte Carlo in Monaco.

C’est Bon is another blog that came across looking at Auvernge blogs to review.

It has only been going for 9 months and doesn’t have many posts but I thought I’d do a mini-review of it to introduce it to anyone who might be interested.

C’est Bon tell the tale of the Weeks family who moved to France in April 2010. The opening post, Moving to France, I guess need a blog, evaluates the fundamental phraseology and philosophy behind the legal requirement for all foreigners moving to France to have a blog.

From there we rush forward to August when it’s time for the Tour de France which the Weeks family view from Mende in the Languedoc.

The then go to the beach at Montpellier and from there have a lovely dinner in Millau.

The highlight must surely have been a visit to Roquefort – the home of the finest cheese in the world!

Busy hunting out blogs to review in the Auvergne I came across Coffee or Tea.

Coffee or Tea is Jenn’s blog and Jenny has only recently moved to Cleremont-Ferrand to study at Group ESC which, in her own words… “It’s a Ecole Superior du Commerce, which is like a university, except…more specialized.”

Jenny says of herself…. “I’m a small-town girl with some Big time dreams! I’m moving to the big city, or bigger than mine, to follow the big dreams in life, and on this road, I’m learning about decisions!”

The French part of Jenny’s blog starts on January 12th when Jenny announces that she’s Traded my Sorority Screams for French Kisses.

In that post, Jenny moves to France and discovers all those things that make France the greatest country in the world!

Namely… Banana and Nutella Crepes, Babyfoot, drinking lots of coffee in cafés and, basically…. trading her “girly loud, American sorority greetings for quiet and polite kisses on the cheek”

First Steps is a slow moving but still rather exciting blog all about Simon and Angela’s leap to a life in France.

Angela says this of her blog…. “Simon works for Sainsbury’s as a Department Manager has a multi-million pound turn over annually on his department and works all hours God sends. I am Events Monkey. I call myself that, as my actual title is unknown!! Just responsible for any event, function, conference, meeting etc.,etc., that happens on the campus where I work. I’d be better being called an Events Elephant, as I’m paid peanuts and expected to work all hours known to man. This is the tale of how we decided to take the massive step to living a totally different life. Selling our home in England and moving to a fantastic little village in the Auvergne, including some of our adventures along the way.”

I’ve been following the blog for a while and even though its only had 24 post since April 2009, every post has been well worth reading and I do have to admit that I’m quite a fan!

Barbara says of her blog… “Well what can I say. I am a small town girl from Arizona who found the man of her dreams in South Carolina. We got married in June of 2008 and are now living and working in France. Our son was born in November 2009. We love to travel and I am writing this blog as a way to keep my friends and family informed of all the things happening on this side of the ocean.”

The blog starts way back in April 2008 with the first post, The journey begins which finds Barbara still in the States and performing an 1,828 mile round trip in 3 days to say goodbye to friends.

And only a few days later we find Barbara in France and saying …Bonjour Clermont-Ferrand.

In which post Barbara describes the journey over to France and finishes up by letting us know… “And now let me give you my intercultural tidbit of the day: in France preservatives means condoms, so when asking for food without preservatives rest assured that 99.9% of food is condom free, instead ask for food without conservatives and you will get less strange looks!”

Useful stuff, that!

However, as a child of the Thatcher years, I think I’d prefer to find a bit of condom in my meat pie rather than a speck of Tory?

Flidstick Dig – Dig - My home is in the Auvergne, France - Former ski bum, wanna-be dog sled musher, and lazy runner living in the West Virginia of France

France Rant – “Having been eclectic in the extreme for much of my life, I’m now finding a way to balance doing several things at once with really doing them.”

Now, this really has to be a mini review even if it is one of the biggest blogs I’ve ever seen!

Keith & Clare Channing’s parking space on the Information Super-highway (you see, it’s even got a massive title) started off in November 2006 with the appropriately titled Welcome to our weblog, in which Keith talks about redundancy, taking early retirement and making plans to move to France.

The next day Clare asks (and answers) the question Why here?

I’ll leave you to read the answer but I ought to mention that I read somewhere that the Auvergne is the least anglophiled (or Anglodefiled?) region of France – interesting to find out why people move there apart from the obvious Michelin, Rugby and University reasons of Clerment-Ferrand.

Our Auverngate Farm is Kristel Sneider’s blog about her life in her farmhouse in the Auvergne.

Kristel says this about Our Auverngate Farm…. “Hope you will enjoy Our Auvergne Farm House blog. This Blog will contain stories, anecdotes and photos from (F) Fab, -French- and (K) Kris -Dutch- about their new house. A farm house in the middle of the Auvergne. They have a dog (D) Django and two cats (C) Cammy & (E) Elly. And soon the new puppy: Fudge.
The purpose of this Blog is to provide family, friend and every passing visitor updates and inside stories about the renovations and the French life at ‘Thuis’.”

Kristel is a Nature and Landscape photographer and has a professional site at www.kristelschneiderphotography.com where, I have to say, she has some fantastic photos of mushrooms!

The blog tells the story of Kim and her husband who move to Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France to….

Well, I’m sure that Kim can explain it better than me…. “I am the wife of a Michelin expat (Matthew), and mom to Jacob, living in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This blog is a way for me to share our adventures abroad with family and friends.”

Now, I first noticed the blog when young Jacob arrived onto the scene but, further investigation shows that plenty happened in Kim and Mathew’s Lives before that happy date!